Then enter a photo of your Outpost Building and go in the draw to WIN a Shanty Hen House!

Just go to our Facebook page and upload your photo to go in the draw to win. The contest ends on 31st October 2018. The Shanty Hen House is worth $1040, it's a great relocatable design and suitable for up to 6 free range hens.

All Outpost Buildings are supplied as a kitset so we thought we’d put together a bit of information about our kitsets and how they are assembled. This will help you to know what to expect when you order your Outpost kitset.

What will the kitset arrive like & include?

Outpost kitsets come well packaged with all parts precut and ready to assemble. Some parts are even semi assembled for you such as doors, gates and parts of the framing. Most parts are labelled so that you can more easily identify each part. The kitset will come wrapped in white pallet wrap to keep the parts dry and we use some timber packing when required to keep the kitset parts safe during transit.

We also send you a Hardware Kit with all the fixings (like screws and nails) and fittings (like hinges and pad bolts for doors) in a box separately.

All the fittings & fixings are well labelled so you know what to use for what part of the assembly. We make sure you have a few extras so don't worry if there's some screws left over! :)

Two horse stalls with handy tack shed in the middle!

The range of Homestead style stables and paddock shelters from Outpost come in a wide range of sizes and options. The one featured here has been very popular with its tack shed in the middle between two good sized stalls.

Relocatable Design

Impressively this design is relocatable if you want it to be. The base of the building sits on heavy duty bearers or “skids” as we call them and the corrugated zincalume cladding is run horizontally to give the building more strength. So once assembled the building can be lifted by hiab truck to be transported to a new property if you ever need to. If you don’t want it to be relocatable then many of our customers opt to bolt the skids to a concrete pad or put the flooring in once the building is in place. The skids are H3 ground treated so it’s fine for them to be in or on the ground and they won’t rot for over 50 years.

Tack shed for all your gear

The tack shed in this design is 1.5m wide by 3.5m deep x 2.9m high at the apex of the roof. It’s a great size for storing your grooming and tack equipment or feed for your horses. Inside the tack shed there is a solid plywood floor to keep your equipment up off the ground. The door comes pre-assembled and has a pad bolt with it so you can securely close it or add a padlock if you want to lock it. The roof of the tack shed has a panel of clear roofing that lets light inside during the day.

Pictured to the right is an inside view of the tackshed. The customer has added their own shelving on the walls. The Outpost Tool Racks are a great accessory for hanging your bridles and halters on.

Red mites are some of the most common mites that affect chickens.

Red mites are generally spread by wild birds coming into contact with your chicken coop. They hide in the dark spots of the chicken coop during the day and then come out at night to feed on your feathered friends. They’ll go hide again when the sun comes up.
To identify whether your hens have red mites or not, you’ll have to have a close look at your chickens feathers and skin. If you can see black and red small spots, then these are most likely red mites. The tiny mites vary in appearance, depending on when they last fed – a mite is only red when it has consumed blood recently and changes colour again through black to grey if it has been a while since their last feed. The best time to examine a hen house is at night, when the mites can often be seen with the aid of a torch, both on and off the bird.

How red mites affect your chickens:

If left untreated, the mites can cause your chickens to become anaemic and reduce their egg production. In extreme cases if left untreated, they may even cause death, so quick treatment is necessary!

How to prevent red mites:

Keep the coop clean, and make sure you have a good look in all the dark corners and joins in timber etc. Red mites hide in the corners of your hen house or nest box bedding during the day. If you find any tiny red crawlies then wash your coop thoroughly with high pressure hose or water blaster. Once dry dust with Smite.
If you are introducing new birds to the flock, check them for mites before you put them in your chicken coop to ensure they don’t transfer any mites to your existing feathered friends.Chickens need an area for dust bathing, even if they’re in a coop full time. This is the best prevention for lice and mites.

Make sure your hens have some fun this summer with these great ideas.

When chickens have little to keep them amused, they will often turn to pecking at themselves and one another- an unhealthy habit that can cause feather loss, injury and animosity among your flock.

Straw, hay bale or lawn clippings

Putting a bale or pile of straw, grass clippings or hay in the chicken coop or run will keep your girls entertained for hours - they are not a fan of piles! Watch as they scratch and peck through the pile searching for insects, seeds and other hidden goodies until there is a pile no more.

Hang something for them to peck at

Use a piece of string and hang something for your hens to peck at. Some ideas to use are cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli. Dodging and pecking at the hanging treat will be a fun game for your flock, and provide them with a healthy boost of greens!

Mirror in the coop

Add a mirror to your backyard coop is a great way to keep your chooks from getting bored. Your curious girls will happily keep entertained by pecking at their reflection and checking themselves out to make sure they are looking their best!

Give your hens something to peck at

If your girls are deserving of a treat, a Poultry Pecker is the answer. It will provide them with a mix of treats and nutritious ingredients alike, as well as giving them something to peck at rather than one another. Outpost sell Poultry Peckers for just $9.95 each buy online now >

Extra perches or a swing!

Chickens love to perch, giving them new perches so they can see a different view will make them happy. Adding extra perches outside will allow your girls to get a different perspective of the great outdoors. If you want to get really creative, use pieces of wood, branches or even ladders to make your girls their own jungle gym- or even make them a chicken swing! A chicken swing can be made easily with some rope and a small branch, just hang it up low enough so they can get onto it easily and wait until they figure it out!

Outpost custom designed this “Hunter” style stable for a customer.

Hunter style stables from Outpost Buildings have a mono pitch roof line that is higher at the front for easy access. This makes it easier to get horses in & out of. The Hunter design is modular so can be extended to suit your needs by adding more stalls, tack rooms or covered areas.

The stable featured here has two generous sized stalls with plywood windows for extra ventilation. The solid timber stall doors are easy to use and there is an optional upgrade available to extra strong galvanised steel framed doors.
The covered area in between the two stalls is great for grooming or feeding. At the back of the covered area there is a tack room for storing feed and tack equipment.

There are clear panels in the side cladding and roof for interior lighting. The stable is designed to be built on a concrete foundation and the customer can add bedding of their choice such as stable rubber mats or sawdust.

If you’re considering getting some hens then there are some things you need to know about hen houses to make sure your hens are happy.

Fresh eggs from your own hens are great but hens can be a bit fussy about when and where they lay. It's worth getting the coop right, otherwise you will be simply feeding your birds for no result.

There are heaps of designs for chicken coops online and if you have a bit of time and the ability to hammer a few nails, you will be able to find plans to build you own or you can buy one of the many kitsets available. Whatever you decide to do, here's a list of things you should make sure your hen house has to make sure you get your fair share of eggs.

Fresh eggs is a great reason to have backyard chickens.

But your fresh eggs could be dangerous to eat if you don't collect, clean, and store them right.
Most chicken coops are not the cleanest places on earth. They're full of dirt, poop, and things your eyes can't see: bacteria.
If you don't clean and store your eggs right, they could bring nasty bugs into your kitchen and could harm your other foods and your health.
For that reason, follow this guide to make sure your eggs are safe to eat.

Collecting your fresh eggs from the coop

Check your coop at least twice a day for eggs. Once in the morning, and once in the evening. For larger flock, you may want to check at least three times a day.

But why that often?

Eggs are fragile and bacteria can easily enter the skin if there's the slightest crack on it. The longer you leave them, the higher possibility of your eggs becoming cracked.

But that's not the only reason.

Your own chickens may eat them.
Chickens, like humans, like to eat eggs (yes, even their own!). This can become a bad habit for your hens…they'll eat the egg as soon as its layed.
You also don't want your eggs to get poopy, even if you can clean them.

Rearing calves is a great way to make a bit of money on your lifestyle block or farm.

You can usually buy calves from dairy farms or beef cattle farms. Most Dairy farms will have calves available between June & September depending on the climate in their location and their preference.

Calves will cost you somewhere between $80-$150 each depending on the season & breed of the calves you are buying. You can make a profit of approximately $70-$150 per calf at weaning time. There is potential to make more of a profit if you keep beef calves until around 18 months of age, presuming you have raised quality animals.

Here’s some information that will help you decide if you want to rear some calves on your block.

Chickens are affected by dropping temperatures & the change in day light hours during Autumn. Most hens will moult during late summer or early Autumn.

Keeping Warm

Chickens have a natural way of keeping warm and in general, most chickens tend to be cold hardy enough for NZ conditions. Chickens can actually handle the cold of winter better than the heat of summer. They have an instinct to fluff their feathers to keep warm. They also have the natural instinct to roost together.

Some people choose to heat their hen house over winter. Many argue that a heated coop is not only a fire hazard, but also not healthy for chickens. Their bodies may not easily adjust to the drastic temperature change inside and outside of the coop.

Also, remember that heating the coop can increase moisture. Too much moisture inside the coop can cause illness or frostbite to your flock.

We recommend that if you have an Outpost Hen House that you reposition it so that it is facing away from the prevailing wind during the winter months.

Having a stable building for your horses is great and you can include a wide range of spaces designed for uses such as overnight stabling, storing all your gear & feed, wash down areas, float parking or storage, foaling stalls and grooming.

What space do you want?

Consider the size of your stable; how many horses do you intend to stable? How big do you want the stalls to be for each horse. Outpost Stall sizes can be customised to suit your requirements. The most popular stall sizes are 3.5m x 3.5m or 3.5m x 4.2m. These sizes allow plenty of space for your horses to move around and also for you to safely move around in the stall with your horse.

How much storage do you need?

Will you want to store hay and other feed in your stable? It’s a great idea to have a lockable tack room to store all your expensive equipment. Keeping it in your stable building will be handy for when you want to use it as well.

Chickens are great food-munching machines - they will eat almost anything and my hens love a bit of variety in their diet.

But, just because they eat it doesn’t always mean it’s good for them so it's important to know what to give them and what you shouldn’t give them.

It’s great to feed your chickens table scraps. I hate throwing things in the trash, so it seems logical to me that I can feed some of our half-eaten meals to the ladies in the backyard. However, there are some foods that you should not feed to your hens.

Here is a list of the most common foods that you should not feed to your hens.